Kyle & Donnelly Discuss Youth Football

Emphasis On Nurturing Talent

Blackpool’s Richie Kyle and Ciaran Donnelly were studio guests at BBC Radio Lancashire last night, speaking live on air to Andy Bayes about youth-team football.

Kyle became the new Head of Coaching after the departures of John Hills and Alan Wright to Southport, with Donnelly taking over as Academy Manager.

And Kyle, who joined the club from the Academy at Premier League side Everton, stressed the importance of nurturing young talent.

“I like to emphasise the importance of development and technical development to the players. Winning will become a habit one you’ve got the technical skills in place,” he said.

“It’s not the end of the world if you lose games at a young age, it’s about nurturing talent and getting the young players to play the right way.

“Everyone has that desire to win. We play head tennis in training and even then everyone wants to win, but throughout the age groups it’s about learning and development.

“I’ve used Andy Murray’s training regime with our lads because it’s a great example for them to see how hard it is to get to the top.”

The Premier League has introduced an Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP), which aims to increase the number and quality of home-grown players in English football.

But with the fees for the transfers of young players across academies being fixed, Donnelly highlighted the risk of losing some of the club’s brightest young talents.

“We’re aiming to become a Category 3 academy under the EPPP, but not being a Category 2 academy makes it difficult for us because the top clubs can take our best players,” Donnelly admitted.

“Our job is to find the gems that want to play for our club. We want them to enjoy the progressions and the coaching. It’s going to be interesting to see how the EPPP progresses and what players come out of these regulations,” he added.